Magic Amongst Honor
by OathsBlood
Summary: Ranma Soatome meets Honor Harrington, Next chapter 24k, Total Story 87k


Magic Amongst Honor  
Prologue  
  
  
---Mimir's Well----------  
  
A small black cat looked at the invader in his realm, a beautiful   
woman who was sitting next to a pool of water her back facing the black   
cat. 'I just step out for a second and come back and there's another fool  
messing with that damn pool, I should never have made that Bet.'   
Walking up to the woman the black cat figures out just who she was.   
'She already made a bet what's she doing back here?'  
  
"Bast, just what are you doing?"  
  
The so named goddess jumps a bit when she hears her name and   
looks up from the laptop she had in her lap. "Oh, its just you Toltiir. I   
was just going over something rather interesting in RS TL 3241-4606."  
  
"Something interesting, in a Ranma Timeline and a protected one at   
that?" Toltiir inquired, 'Things have been rather boring lately.'  
  
"Yeah, someone got a hold of a cat statue imbued with a summoning   
spell and gave it to Ranma."  
  
"Yeah, so what has that to do with you?"  
  
"They gave it to him along with the idea of using it while praying to   
ME in a shrine that he hand built for a solution to the Cat Fist problem.   
I'm trying to figure out what type of cat to send to him."  
  
Waving his paw over the edge of the water Toltiir said, "This I just   
have to see."  
  
----Narima, Japan March 10, 1992------  
  
A warm spring breeze blew through the streets of the Nerima  
district shopping center. Today, like every other Saturday, it was  
full of people looking for things to buy. Ranma Saotome was among the  
crowd of shoppers, going to pick up some soy sauce for Kasumi. He  
was approaching the grocer's shop when his attention suddenly was  
diverted by a new small shop at the corner. It had Martial weapons on  
display in the window along with scrolls, books, and some strange little   
knickknacks.  
  
Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Ranma approached the  
strange store and grabbed the door handle hesitantly. Pushing on  
the handle, he entered the store. The silvery bells hanging above the  
door rang out, announcing a new customer. As he walked into the  
store, he was immediately assailed by a strong odor of old books,  
the metallic smell of well oiled blades mixed in with incense. His eyes   
swept about the place, inspecting the rows of shelves and the displays  
of various of items that crowded the store. Pictures of people from  
all over the world, some ancient styled clothing and other relics  
littered the floor and walls in no discernible order. Ranma stepped  
over and around items and he wandered about the store, not sure if  
he'd find anything to suit his fancy.  
  
A vendor dressed in a light tan robe with a brown vest looked up from  
his place behind the counter, and watched as Ranma disappeared behind  
a rack of old clothes, heading towards the back of the store. Unseen  
by Ranma, the vendor's eyes sparkled as his gaze fell on the young  
martial artist. `Yes. This may be the one,' he thought to himself as  
he walked around the counter to meet his customer at the back of the  
store.  
  
Ranma hadn't found anything of interest, and was beginning to  
tire of the place. He turned around to leave when his hand bumped  
against an old table with little statues and dusty books sitting on  
top. Disinterestedly, he looked through the titles of the books,  
noting the that he couldn't read any of them. He turned his attention to a   
stack of martial arts manuals sitting on one corner of the table, and was   
busy flipping through them when someone tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
"Yahhh!" Ranma yelled, startled by the quiet approach of the  
vendor. His startled jolt caused several of the manuals to spill to the  
floor.  
  
Undisturbed by his outburst, the vendor smiled, then bowed  
slightly. "Anything I can help you with, kind sir?"  
  
Ranma let his heart calm down before answering. He'd debated  
asking the vendor how he could've snuck up behind him without him  
knowing, but decided not to since the vendor appeared too spacy to be  
an effective threat. He scratched his head, not really sure why he  
was in the store to begin with, "Ummm... well, I was really just  
looking ..."  
  
"... for a gift, perhaps?" the vendor completed. "I wouldn't   
recommend any of those except for a joke. We have plenty of less   
dangerous martial arts stuff here," he said, gesturing to the  
walls and aisles of books and weapons in the store.  
  
Ranma looked down and blanched, he was holding a Cat Fist manual,   
paling he droped the manula back onto the counter before shivering.  
  
"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. To tell you the truth, I don't  
even know why I came here," Ranma said distractedly, while trying to   
stop his shivering.  
  
Giving him a searching look, the vendor said, "You seem to know a   
lot about that manual." Seeing the scared look on his face a fealing of   
dread slowly filled the vendor, "You wouldn't have by any chance been   
taught the Cat Fist?" seeing the boys face turn a pale white while   
twitching he felt he had his answer.  
  
  
'It must've been the lady's will that brought you here.' He chuckled   
slightly. "Do you believe in magic young man?"  
  
The mention of magic had returned Ranma's attention to the  
rambling vendor. He frowned at the guy's question. `No, of course I   
don't like magic,' he stated to himself. After Jusenkyo, and all of the   
magical potions, he'd had his fill of magic. But instead of ranting about   
his life, he merely replied, "Oh yes, magic is real."  
  
Giving the boy one more searching look he continued, "Well, I might   
have something that will help you with that problem of yours with cats."   
he said, gesturing for Ranma to follow him to the counter.  
  
"Whattaya mean, *something?*" Ranma asked skeptically, his eyes  
narrowing. Anything *magical* usually meant trouble for him.  
  
"Well, the whole lot of items in this cabinet are supposed to be  
magical," he said, waving his hands at the display. Unlocking it he   
reached in and pulled out a cat statue. Setting it on the counter looked   
back at Ranma as he scooted back a little. "This might be some help   
you."  
  
Ranma couldn't help but ask. He didn't want to believe the vendor's   
claims, but something in his mind told him to listen. "Really? How?"  
  
"This is a statue from ancient Egypt, it is for Basset the goddess of   
cats, protector of pregnant women and children. It is supposed to allow a   
mortal to beseech her for help in troubled times. If they have lived their   
life in an honorable fashion and she finds them worthy she helps the   
mortal. As long as you are not evil and are not asking for a evil or   
greedy favor she won't punish you."  
  
"How much is it?"  
  
"You can have it free of charge, just when the time comes give it to   
someone who needs it as much as you did." The vender put the statue in   
a box before holding it out to Ranma.  
  
Ranma took the box and held it to his chest, suddenly protective of   
the item. "Thank you very much." He said before bowing and rushing   
out of the store.  
  
The vendor smiled at the closed door, watching Ranma walk down  
the sidewalk. He sighed to himself once Ranma was out of sight.   
"M'lady Basset, Help him as you helped me."  
  
Reaching down he picked up a small tan colored cat. "Help him."  
  
---Mimir's Well----------  
  
  
"Well that was different."  
  
"That's what I thought, any idea of what type of cat I should send   
him?"  
  
"How does sending a cat help him solve his problem?" Toltiir asked,   
while looking at the screen on the laptop.  
  
"I can bind the Cat Fist between the him and a cat so they can share   
the fear between the two of them." Bast shakes her head at the next   
picture. "I need a cat that is smart enough to help him, dangerous to   
survive around him but not dangerous looking, one that can adapt to   
various situations and would be loyal enough to go against his wishes to   
help him."  
  
"In other words one that is everything he is not?"  
  
"Yeah, any suggestions?"  
  
"Hmmm", reaching forward with a paw he pulls up a cat on the   
screen. The cat in question was a good 60 centimeters in length and a   
creamy color. With a long fluffy tale, it hand a distinct characteristic that   
made it stand out from all of the others they had looked at. It had six   
legs.  
  
Smiling Bast punched a few keys.  
  
"Yes that will do well."  
  
----Nerima, March 17, 1992 five minutes earlier------  
  
Ranma slowly walked up the stairs to the attic in the Tendo home. In   
his hands he carried a box with the things he would need. It had taken   
him a week to find out what he need to know to do the ceremony. He   
had gone back to the shop three times in the last seven days to talk with   
the vendor. The first time it was to ask how the statue worked and the   
only answer he got was, "It works differently for each person. You have   
to come up with a ritual by yourself for yourself. It must be personal."   
  
The conversation then drifted to stories about his homeland, Egypt. He   
pulled the door to the attic closed and paused a moment to push his fear   
back as he glanced at the various cat motif stuff placed around him. In   
front of him was an altar that had two candles and a small shrine sitting   
on it. He walked forward slowly and kneeled down in front of it and   
opened the box. Pausing yet again he had to suppress another wave of   
terror running through him at the sight of what was in the box. With   
shaking hands he pulled out the small cat statue and set it down in front   
of the shrine. Next he pulled out three small bowls and a container of   
water. Setting them down in a triangle in between him and the altar he   
filed two with water. In the last he put a pinch of dirt, a small bone, and   
a sliver of wood. Finally he took out a small cat claw and a tiny crystal.  
  
He put the box off to the side along with the container and bowed   
once.  
  
"Colonge, this better work." He crushed the crystal in his left and   
touched the wicks of the candles. With a surge of hot Ki from his right   
hand and one of cold from his left both candles burst into flames, a hot   
red one and one the burned a cold blue. Then he opened the shrine and   
bowed. Quietly he spoke in horribly accented but recognizable Egyptian,   
"Basset hear this prayer, I beseech thee for help."  
  
Then he continued in Japanese, "I beg you to help me with a terror I   
can not fight, help us with the Cat Fist."  
  
With the cat claw he pricked his right hand and put a drop of blood in   
the bowl with the dirt and the right hand bowl of water.  
  
"Born male I was, as a man I ask, help us with this problem."  
A second prick on his left hand after he put his hand in the left bowl and   
shifted to his female form, "By Jusenkyo's magic a Woman I am, as a   
woman I ask, help us with this problem."  
  
A drop of blood in the first bowl and another in the water on the left.   
Placing both hands in their corresponding bowls of water he heated the   
right one.  
  
"By the soil of the pit, the wood of the lid and the bone of the dead.   
By the pain of the living, the pain of a man," A burst of cold Ki and he   
became a she, "the pain of a woman, and the pain of a cat, I ask you to   
heal us and put the spirits of the dead to rest. My all of those that came   
unjustly to harm because of the Cat Fist find peace, I beseech you help   
us."  
  
In his mind he/she heard a single melodic voice,   
  
I find you worthy.  
  
----During this, In the Tendo Home, down stairs------  
  
  
Akane sat happily at the table in the dinning room with her sisters,   
father, Genma, "I cat believe Ranma is finally getting cured of that damn   
Cat Fist!"  
  
Nabiki nodded, "It is a good thing considering the trouble he caused   
two weeks ago when he got trapped by those ally cats."  
  
Kasumi just sipped her tea happily, "I'm so happy for him finding a   
cure. I hope he finishes up in the attic soon, I need to dust up there."  
  
Two pairs of ears pricked heard Kasumi's words. On pair belonged to   
a small black pig, which immediately turned to find some hot water. It   
ran of bweeing angrily, 'Ranma you will not get a cure before I do!'  
  
The other pair belonged to a gnome of a man. Who yelled, "NO, I   
will not lose my RANMA-CHAN!!!"  
  
Akane jumped up and blocked the pervert before he could race past   
them and smashed him outside with her fist. The ensuing fight would   
have been extremely short if it wasn't for Ryouga climbing out the   
bathroom window.  
  
"I won't let you hurt Akane!" was his battle cry as he rushed in. The   
ensuing melee would have been fine except for the fact that both of them   
knew of the event transpiring upstairs. So when happosi threw one of his   
bomb at the attic window Ryouga didn't stop it.  
  
  
---Copperwall Mountains, Sphinx----------  
  
  
Branch Leaper paused midway down the long picket wood limb, and   
his ears went up in surprise as he tasted the first hint of the aproaching   
mind glow.  
  
Mind glows, he corrected himself as he realized a person and their   
human made their way along the forest floor towards him. There was   
something familiar of one of the mind glows, one felt familiar as it got a   
little closer he bleeked in amusement, it was Laughs Brightly and his   
human Dances on Clouds.  
  
He scurried down to one of the lowest branches and waited for them   
to reach him. The elders had been expecting him to bring Dances on   
Clouds for a while now, they had wanted to feel the bond that had been   
building between Laughs Brightly and his human, with their own minds.  
He looked behind him as he felt another glow coming from the other   
direction.  
  
  
  
  
  
In a flash of cream colored fur and the skitter of claws Brightsong   
landed on the branch nest to him.   
  
  
  
Brightsong twitched her whiskers in embarrassment   
  
Both cats looked down as the two travelers entered the clrearing  
below them, to suddenly have the attention drawn to a swirl of light that   
suddenly grew to a five foot circle that showed a young boy with a   
pigtail kneeling in front of a statue of a cat on the ground behind him   
was a small ball with a string coming out of it, the end of which was   
sparkling as it burned lower. Three of the minds watching the scene   
froze in statement, the other to held no thought except for each other.  
  
Brightsong threw herself of the branch as she raced towards the   
portal, the pigtailed boy was stranding up when the fuse burned out and   
the bomb explored sending him through the portal and strait into the   
leaping Brightsong. The treecat and human collided in midair and   
rendered her unconsciousness.  
  
----The Attic----  
  
The attic window smashed behind him at the same moment and a   
small ball of wrapped paper rolled up behind him unnoticed.  
  
  
  
"Yes, I will."  
  
  
  
A flicker of light in front of him grew until it was a disc five feet   
wide. Then it rippled and showed a forest. Ranma slowly stood up as a   
cat came into sight and behind him there was an explosion. Suddenly he   
found himself flying forward smacking into her. 'Six Legs?' was his last  
though before he hit the tree and everything went black.  
  
---Mimir's Well----------  
  
"Oops." 


End file.
